1996 Giro d'Italia

1996 Giro d'Italia

Race details
Dates		18 May — 9 June
Stages		22
Distance		3,990 km (2,479 mi)
Winning time		105h 20' 23" (37.875 km/h or 23.534 mph)
Palmares
	Winner	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)	(Panaria-Vinavil)
	Second	Enrico Zaina (ITA)	(Carrera Jeans–Tassoni)
	Third	Abraham Olano (ESP)	(Mapei–GB)
	Points	Fabrizio Guidi (ITA)	(Scrigno–Blue Storm)
	Mountains	Mariano Piccoli (ITA)	(Brescialat)
	Intergiro	Fabrizio Guidi (ITA)	(Scrigno–Blue Storm)
	Team	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni
	Team Points	Panaria-Vinavil

The 1996 Giro d'Italia was the 79th edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Giro began on May 18 with a mass-start stage that began and ended in the Greek capital Athens. The race came to a close on June 9 with a mass-start stage that ended in the Italian city of Milan. Eighteen teams entered the race that was won by the Russian Pavel Tonkov of the Panaria-Vinavil team. Second and third were the Italian rider Enrico Zaina and Spanish rider Abraham Olano.

In the race's other classifications, Brescialat rider Mariano Piccoli won the mountains classification and Fabrizio Guidi of the Scrigno–Gaerne team won the points classification and the intergiro classification. Carrera Jeans–Tassoni finished as the winners of the team classification, ranking each of the eighteen teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time. The other team classification, the team points classification, where the teams' riders are awarded points for placing within the top twenty in each stage and the points are then totaled for each team was won by Panaria-Vinavil.

Teams

Eighteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1996 edition of the Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 162 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 162 made it to the finish in Milan.^[1]

The teams entering the race were:^[2]

Aki-Gipiemme Amore & Vita-Galatron Brescialat Carrera Jeans–Tassoni Festina–Lotus Gewiss Playbus

Glacial–Selle Italia Kelme–Artiach Mapei–GB MG Maglificio–Technogym MX Onda Scrigno–Blue Storm

Panaria-Vinavil Refin-Mobilvetta Roslotto-ZG Mobili Saeco–AS Juvenes San Marino Team Polti TVM–Farm Frites

Pre-race favorites

The starting peloton did not feature 1995 winner, Tony Rominger.^[3] El País's Carlos Arribas named Spanish rider Abraham Olano as a rider that could challenge for the overall victory, but questioned his ability as an elite rider.^[3] Michele Ferrari named Evgeni Berzin, Olano, and Pavel Tonkov in order of the chance of winning the race.^[3] According to Arribas, Berzin was not in that good of form coming into the race, but his team doctor, Gianni Mazzoni, believed that he could regain the form that helped him win the Giro in 1994.^[3] Berzin also had a fully committed team to support him this year,^[3] unlike in the previous edition where he and his teammate Piotr Ugrumov did not get along.^[4] Lluis Simon of El Punt felt that Olano and Berzin were the favorites coming into the race and that Olano had performed better than Berzin in the recent Tour de Romandie.^[5] Simon believed that with the absence of Marco Pantani due to, the Italian with the best chance to win was Francesco Casagrande.^[5] Ferrari, Simon, and Arribas both agreed that the young Ukrainian Alexander Gontchenkov showed great potential during the early season and could be a rider to place high in the general classification.^[3][5]

Route and stages

Athens hosted the start and finish of the first stage, while the race stayed in Greece for another two days before transferring into Italy.

The foreign start in Athens was announced on 12 May, 1995.^[6][7] The route for the 1996 Giro d'Italia was unveiled by race director Carmine Castellano on 11 November 1995 in Milan.^[8] It contained one time trial event, which was an individual pursuit. There were ten stages containing high mountains, of which four had summit finishes: stage 7, to Massiccio del Sirino;^[9] stage 13, to Prato Nevoso;^[10] stage 20, to Passo Pordoi;^[11] and stage 21, to Aprica.^[12] The organizers chose to include one rest day. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was 254 km (158 mi) longer, contained two less individual time trials, and the same amount of stages.

There were seven stages that started or finished outside of Italy.^[13] The first three stages took place completely in the country of Greece before transferring to Italian soil for the race's fourth stage.^[13] The Greek capital Athens served as both the start and finish for the race's first stage.^[13] The next day's stage began in the began in Eleusis and ended in Naupactus.^[13] The Giro's third stage stretched from Missolonghi to Ioannina.^[13] The race's fourteenth stage finished in the French city of Briançon, which also served as the start for the next stage.^[13] Stage 16 came to an end in the Swiss city of Lausanne, which also was the start for the seventeenth stage.^[13]

The 1996 route saw a decrease in the amount of kilometers that were dedicated to time trials and the removal of the climbing time trial that had been a staple in years past.^[5] Lluis Simon of El Punt felt that the penultimate stage that crossed Mendola, Tonale Pass, Gavia Pass, Mortirolo, and Aprica would be the hardest of the race.^[5]

Stage characteristics and results^[12][14]

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	18 May	Athens (Greece) to Athens (Greece)	170 km (106 mi)		Plain stage	Silvio Martinello (ITA)
2	19 May	Eleusis (Greece) to Naupactus (Greece)	235 km (146 mi)		Plain stage	Glenn Magnusson (SWE)
3	20 May	Missolonghi (Greece) to Ioannina (Greece)	199 km (124 mi)		Plain stage	Giovanni Lombardi (ITA)
	21 May	Rest day
4	22 May	Ostuni to Ostuni	147 km (91 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
5	23 May	Metaponto to Crotone	196 km (122 mi)		Plain stage	Ángel Edo (ESP)
6	24 May	Crotone to Catanzaro	179 km (111 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Pascal Hervé (FRA)
7	25 May	Amantea to Massiccio del Sirino	164 km (102 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Davide Rebellin (ITA)
8	26 May	Polla to Naples	135 km (84 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
9	27 May	Naples to Fiuggi	184 km (114 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Enrico Zaina (ITA)
10	28 May	Arezzo to Prato	164 km (102 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Rodolfo Massi (ITA)
11	29 May	Prato to Marina di Massa	130 km (81 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
12	30 May	Aulla to Loano	195 km (121 mi)		Plain stage	Fabiano Fontanelli (ITA)
13	31 May	Loano to Prato Nevoso	115 km (71 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)
14	1 June	Sanctuary of Vicoforte to Briançon (France)	202 km (126 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Pascal Richard (SUI)
15	2 June	Briançon (France) to Aosta	235 km (146 mi)		Plain stage	Gianni Bugno (ITA)
16	3 June	Aosta to Lausanne (Switzerland)	180 km (112 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Alexander Gontchenkov (UKR)
17	4 June	Lausanne (Switzerland) to Biella	236 km (147 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Nicolaj Bo Larsen (DEN)
18	5 June	Meda to Vicenza	216 km (134 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
19	6 June	Vicenza to Marostica	62 km (39 mi)		Individual time trial	Evgeni Berzin (RUS)
20	7 June	Marostica to Passo Pordoi	220 km (137 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Enrico Zaina (ITA)
21	8 June	Cavalese to Aprica	250 km (155 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Ivan Gotti (ITA)
22	9 June	Sondrio to Milan	176 km (109 mi)		Plain stage	Serguei Outschakov (UKR)
	Total		3,990 km (2,479 mi)

Classification leadership

The Passo di Gavia was the Cima Coppi for the 1996 Giro d'Italia.

Four different jerseys were worn during the 1996 Giro d'Italia. The leader of the general classification – calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider, and allowing time bonuses for the first three finishers on mass-start stages – wore a pink jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro.^[15]

For the points classification, which awarded a purple (or cyclamen) jersey to its leader, cyclists were given points for finishing a stage in the top 15; additional points could also be won in intermediate sprints. The green jersey was awarded to the mountains classification leader. In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists. Each climb was ranked as either first, second or third category, with more points available for higher category climbs. The Cima Coppi, the race's highest point of elevation, awarded more points than the other first category climbs.^[15] The Cima Coppi for this Giro was the Passo di Gavia and was first climbed by the Colombian Hernan Buenahora. The intergiro classification was marked by a blue jersey.^[15] The calculation for the intergiro is similar to that of the general classification, in each stage there is a midway point that the riders pass through a point and where their time is stopped. As the race goes on, their times compiled and the person with the lowest time is the leader of the intergiro classification and wears the blue jersey.^[15] Although no jersey was awarded, there was also one classification for the teams, in which the stage finish times of the best three cyclists per team were added; the leading team was the one with the lowest total time.^[15]

The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

Classification leadership by stage

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Team classification
1	Silvio Martinello	Silvio Martinello	Silvio Martinello	Fabiano Fontanelli	Scrigno–Blue Storm
2	Glenn Magnusson		Stefano Zanini
3	Giovanni Lombardi	Stefano Zanini			Panaria-Vinavil
4	Mario Cipollini	Silvio Martinello	Silvio Martinello		Scrigno–Blue Storm
5	Ángel Edo				Panaria-Vinavil
6	Pascal Hervé	Pascal Hervé			Saeco–AS Juvenes San Marino
7	Davide Rebellin	Davide Rebellin			Team Polti
8	Mario Cipollini
9	Enrico Zaina
10	Rodolfo Massi				Gewiss Playbus
11	Mario Cipollini
12	Fabiano Fontanelli		Fabrizio Guidi
13	Pavel Tonkov	Pavel Tonkov	Silvio Martinello	Mariano Piccoli
14	Pascal Richard		Fabrizio Guidi		Carrera Jeans–Tassoni
15	Gianni Bugno
16	Alexander Gontchenkov
17	Nicolaj Bo Larsen
18	Mario Cipollini
19	Evgeni Berzin				Gewiss Playbus
20	Enrico Zaina	Abraham Olano			Carrera Jeans–Tassoni
21	Ivan Gotti	Pavel Tonkov
22	Serguei Outschakov
Final		Pavel Tonkov	Fabrizio Guidi	Mariano Piccoli	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni

Final standings

Legend
	Denotes the winner of the General classification[1]		Denotes the winner of the Mountains classification[1]
	Denotes the winner of the Points classification[1]		Denotes the winner of the Intergiro classification[1]

General classification

Final general classification (1–10)^[1]

	Rider	Team	Time
1	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)	Panaria-Vinavil	105h 20' 23"
2	Enrico Zaina (ITA)	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni	+ 2' 43"
3	Abraham Olano (ESP)	Mapei–GB	+ 2' 57"
4	Piotr Ugrumov (LAT)	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	+ 3' 00"
5	Ivan Gotti (ITA)	Gewiss Playbus	+ 3' 36"
6	Davide Rebellin (ITA)	Team Polti	+ 9' 15"
7	Stefano Faustini (ITA)	Aki-Gipiemme	+ 10' 38"
8	Alexandre Shefer (KAZ)	Scrigno–Blue Storm	+ 11' 22"
9	Jean-Cyril Robin (FRA)	Festina–Lotus	+ 12' 54"
10	Evgeni Berzin (RUS)	Gewiss Playbus	+ 14' 41"

Points classification

Final points classification (1–10)^[1][16]

	Rider	Team	Points
1	Fabrizio Guidi (ITA)	Scrigno–Blue Storm	235
2	Giovanni Lombardi (ITA)	Team Polti	130
3	Enrico Zaina (ITA)	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni	120
4	Davide Rebellin (ITA)	Team Polti	114
5	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)	Panaria-Vinavil	110
6	Abraham Olano (ESP)	Mapei–GB	109
7	Fabrizio Bontempi (ITA)	Brescialat	108
8	Zbiginiew Spruch (POL)	Panaria-Vinavil	99
9	Denis Zanette (ITA)	Aki-Gipiemme	96
10	Piotr Ugrumov (LAT)	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	88

Mountains classification

Final mountain classification (1–10)^[1][16]

	Rider	Team	Points
1	Mariano Piccoli (ITA)	Brescialat	69
2	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)	Panaria-Vinavil	37
3	Ivan Gotti (ITA)	Gewiss Playbus	36
4	Davide Rebellin (ITA)	Team Polti	33
5	Piotr Ugrumov (LAT)	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	29
6	Rodolfo Massi (ITA)	Refin-Mobilvetta	28
7	Alexander Gontchenkov (UKR)	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	21
8	Hernan Buenahora (COL)	Kelme–Artiach	19
9	Francesco Casagrande (FRA)	TVM–Farm Frites	16
10	Herman Buenahora (ITA)	Saeco–AS Juvenes San Marino	15

Intergiro classification

Final intergiro classification (1–10)^[1][16]

	Rider	Team	Time
1	Fabrizio Guidi (ITA)	Scrigno–Blue Storm	59h 36' 45"
2	Fabrizio Bontempi (ITA)	Brescialat	+ 15"
3	Mauro Bettin (ITA)	Refin-Mobilvetta	+ 1' 37"
4	Davide Bramati (ITA)	Scrigno–Blue Storm	+ 2' 13"
5	Abraham Olano (ESP)	Mapei–GB	+ 2' 40"
6	Evgeni Berzin (RUS)	Gewiss Playbus	+ 2' 46"
7	Giovanni Lombardi (ITA)	Team Polti	+ 2' 52"
8	Mariano Piccoli (ITA)	Brescialat	+ 2' 54"
9	Alexander Gontchenkov (UKR)	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	+ 3' 22"
10	Marco Saligari (ITA)	MG Maglificio–Technogym	+ 3' 37"

Team classification

Final team classification (1–10)^[1][16]

	Team	Time
1	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni	316h 40' 46"
2	Mapei–GB	+ 2' 33"
3	Gewiss Playbus	+ 8' 21"
4	Festina–Lotus	+ 16' 37"
5	Team Polti	+ 53' 13"
6	Panaria-Vinavil	+ 1h 04' 05"
7	Aki-Gipiemme	+ 1h 09' 46"
8	Roslotto-ZG Mobili	+ 1h 40' 20"
9	MG Maglificio–Technogym	+ 1h 43' 18"
10	Brescialat	+ 2h 07' 37"

Team points classification

Final team points classification (1–10)^[1]

	Team	Points
1	Panaria-Vinavil	468
2	Carrera Jeans–Tassoni	426
3	Saeco–AS Juvenes San Marino	401
4	Team Polti	357
5	Scrigno–Blue Storm	352
6	Aki-Gipiemme	346
7	Team Polti	332
8	Mapei–GB	324
9	Brescialat	285
10	Gewiss Playbus	260

Minor classifications

Other less well-known classifications, whose leaders did not receive a special jersey, were awarded during the Giro. Other awards included the most combative classification, which was a compilation of points gained for position on crossing intermediate sprints, mountain passes and stage finishes.^[15] Italian Fabrizio Guidi won the most combative classification.^[1][16] Teams were given penalty points for minor technical infringements.^[15] Riso Scotti–MG Maglificio and Kross–Selle Italia were the most successful in avoiding penalties, and so were both winners of the Fair Play classification.^[1]

References

Citations

1. "Stage 22 Brief". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. 1996-06-09. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
2. "Start List for Giro d'Italia". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
3. Carlos Arribas (18 May 1996). "Los enemigos de Olano" [The enemies of Olano]. El País (in Spanish) (Ediciones El País). Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
4. Bill and Carol McGann. "1995 Giro d'Italia". Bike Race Info. Dog Ear Publishing. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
5. LLuis Simon (18 May 1996). "Abraham Olano afronta en el Giro la seva primera gran Yolta com a favorit" [Abraham Olano faces in the Giro his first major Yolta as favorite] (PDF). El Punt (in Catalan) (Hermes Comunicacions S.A.). p. 21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
6. Carlos Arribas (13 May 1995). "La imagen del ciclismo español sin Induráin" [The image of Spanish cycling without Indurain]. El País (in Spanish) (Ediciones El País). Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
7. http://archiviostorico.unita.it/cgi-bin/highlightPdf.cgi?t=ebook&file=/archivio/uni_1995_05/19950513_0039.pdf
8. "Dureza final y ausencias" [Final hardness and absences] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 12 November 1995. p. 35. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
9. "La rebelión de los modestos" [Rise of the modest] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 25 May 1996. p. 31. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
10. "Olano: la hora de la verdad" [Olano: the moment of truth] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 31 May 1996. p. 45. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
11. "Olano, por un segundo" [Olano, for a second] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 7 June 1996. p. 42. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
12. "La última agonía en un escenario para la épica" [The last agony on stage for the epic] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 8 June 1996. p. 32. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
13. "Las 22 Etapas" [The 22 Stages] (PDF) (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 18 May 1996. p. 32. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
14. "Giro d'Italia - 1996". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 21 June 2014. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
15. Laura Weislo (13 May 2008). "Giro d'Italia classifications demystified". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
16. "A Tonkov l'edizione '96 Carrera, titolo a squadre" [A Tonkov edition '96 Carrera, team title] (PDF). l'Unità (in Italian) (PCI). 7 May 1997. p. 15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 April 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2012.